Strut Your Stuff October Winner & November Sponsors

Congratulations to Pennee of All Wired Up Designs who is the winner for October with this stunning pendant!



 Please email Barbara with your mailing address: secondsurf(at)gmail[dot]com

For November: We have several stunning prizes courtesy of our own Love My Art Jewelry Members:

First up is this stunning enameled pendant by Julie Holmes:

Isn't this just perfect for Autumn? Visit Julie here:
Blog
Etsy

And also these beautiful components by MaryAnn Carroll:

This just looks like a delicious mix of Autumn and Winter (perfect for November since many of us are already seeing snow!)

Visit MaryAnn here:
Etsy
Facebook
Blog



Monthly Challenge Rules

1. Take pictures of your current creation and upload it to our flickr pool. (up to 3 per submission). Look for your work to be added to the group when it meets the rules of the challenge.

2. Leave a description of your thought process while creating your jewelry or beads/components. We really want everyone to share their creative thinking so please make sure that you share.

3. Since we are a group promoting "creating handmade with handmade," your jewelry should consist of at least 75% handmade. This doesn't mean that you have to create everything that goes into your piece. You could use beads/components created by other artists. Please give credit to that artist in your description.

4. If your submission will be loose beads/components, it may include any medium that you prefer to make those in. These submissions would also require a description of your creative thought process.

5. You may submit as many pieces as you like in a month, but please note that your name will be put in the hat once for the end of monthly giveaway. And in fairness, you can be chosen only once for designer of the week.

6. This challenge begins the first Monday of each month. Winners from the previous month will be announced the first Monday of the following month. For example January's challenge starts 1/2/12 and the winner announced 2/6/12.

7. Have fun, show off!!

ALSO, Don't forget to enter to win these beautiful earrings generously donated by Laura Jane Bouton!

Strut Your Stuff Winner for APRIL!!!!

* please scroll down for the newest prizes and rules.

The winner for April is -  

Cathie Carroll Congratulations!!!

She submitted

She says about this piece:

"I found this little pearl in my hand and wanted to showcase it's almost heart shaped beauty. It's so delicate, I thought that putting in a larger piece would overwhelm. Fine silver wire wraps the pearl in place and makes it important.

The blue of the patina is so soft and mesmerizing, it became to me a meditation piece."

AND

"I never know what's going to happen in the patina process. I have a good idea what can happen, but then I pull a piece out and the next step can change.

This chain was so beautiful, I wanted it to be the star. I added soem mica powder for shimmer made a simple oversized clasp and voila! Somehting that can stand on it own or layer with more dramatic pieces."

And look at this piece!

"Years ago I saw a handmade chain in a magazine and it's been lurking in the back of my mind ever since. I finally slurged on flat Sterling wire and then held my breath as I cut it up into small bits. I torched the ends and folded them over each other. I made a chain!

For my 1st handmade chain, I wanted something really special. The Kanji disc is a kitchen sink piece. I etched Chinese poetry. I liked it but wanted more age. I tried hammering which helped, but a patina bath and mica gave me the colors, pits, and marks of time that I wanted."

And for those of you who may be new here, this is a re-cap of what Strut Your Stuff is all about, and how you can win:

STRUT YOUR STUFF - Love My Art Jewelry

A place for jewelry and bead artists to show off their jewelry creations using all handmade components.

Monthly Challenge Rules

1. Take pictures of your current creation and upload it to our flickr pool. (up to 3 per submission). Look for your work to be added to the group when it meets the rules of the challenge.

2. Leave a description of your thought process while creating your jewelry or beads/components. We really want everyone to share their creative thinking so please make sure that you share.

3. Since we are a group promoting "creating handmade with handmade," your jewelry should consist of at least 75% handmade. This doesn't mean that you have to create everything that goes into your piece. You could use beads/components created by other artists. Please give credit to that artist in your description.

4. If your submission will be loose beads/components, it may include any medium that you prefer to make those in. These submissions would also require a description of your creative thought process.

5. You may submit as many pieces as you like in a month, but please note that your name will be put in the hat once for the end of monthly giveaway. And in fairness, you can be chosen only once for designer of the week.

6. This challenge begins the first Monday of each month. Winners from the previous month will be announced the first Monday of the following month. For example May's challenge starts 5/7/12 and the winner announced the first Monday in June. Have fun, show off!!

We have some WONDERFUL prizes for May, generously donated by:

Marla James - Marla's Mud

Julie Holmes - Zenamels

What will you be struttin' this month?

Is it always your fault?

By Julie Holmes

overly used / New

Artists can be the most self critical people.  We have such high expectations, lofty aspirations and a keen eye for the off kilter.  Turned inward, that eye can be brutal.  Are we sometimes much too quick to judge ourselves?  I think so.  I’m 53, so when the grains of enamel started showing up on the wrong side of the wire, it’s my eyes.  Poor eyesight.  Got to be.  Or…maybe, it’s the hands.  That’s it.  The tremors of old age are setting in.  It always works to blame the parents.  You know, the ones that grew up in the depression and taught me not to waste, not to spend, not to buy a new $2.00 paintbrush in order not to ruin a $200.00 cloisonné.  That might work, except they don’t know anything about making cloisonné.  All I know is  I broke out a new brush and the grains of enamel started behaving better.

done in class / done in studio
(Click to enlarge)

Then there were the black dots.  They started invading and I blamed myself.  I had learned to use a dedicated brush for black enamel.  I had become lax in my practices.  It had to be grains of black enamel stuck in my brush and making it their dastardly mission to destroy my perfectionistic perfectionism.  Why had I suddenly entered what will become known as my “black dot period” after my death?  Well, it turns out the black dots only show up on pieces I made during a “glass on copper” class using the community kilns.  I assume it may have been airborne bits of their scalex, or maybe just airborne firescale ...or the black dot fiend that hid under the table and threw black dots at my work when I wasn’t looking.  All I know is I figured out it never happened to pieces I made in my own studio.

And sometimes in our efforts not to be perfectionists…we aren’t imperfect enough.  This was to be an asymmetrical piece.  The shape drawn free-hand to be as carefree as the subject matter, only it wasn’t off kilter enough.  My son said it looked like I had tried to make it symmetrical and failed miserably.  So instead of looking cool and artsy…it just looked sloppy.  All I know is we are all human, and humans aren’t symmetrical either...and I like this piece anyway.

My point is, don’t assume YOU are the reason something didn’t turn out.  Check the expiration date, see if the temperature setting has changed, check the weather, your astrological chart and the moon phase. And sometimes, when the results turn out wrong, but unsuspectingly, happily magical, just be grateful that you were born with the desire to be creative and are here today to witness and take the blame for your own perfect genius.